Steal The Stars
by Vullet
Summary: Swearing loyalty to the Grand Architect for saving his life was one thing - falling in love with a former Decepticon leader was a whole different situation Flame was unprepared for.
1. Prologue

Flame had lost count of how long it'd been since the Grand Architect had found them. It hadn't been long - maybe only a few solar cycles - but adjusting was already difficult. Everything until recently had seemed bleak to him. Everything insisted he'd be stuck on Garrus-9 for the rest of his life, and he still didn't understand why Shockwave had gotten him out in the first place. He was just an Autobot who'd gone astray, but definitely not enough of a big name for Shockwave to pick him out without thought.

This Grand Architect, whoever he was, seemed more promising than Shockwave. He had offered Flame and Scorponok freedom from being stuck with the rest of the escaped prisoners - he had saved their lives. Without him, Flame could only have thought he'd still be adrift in space, slowly dying as they'd jumped out of the ship due to fear of the DJD in nowhere. But his suspicions about this cause had been rising - he was immediately separated from Scorponok, as if this mech had a preference for someone more notable.

He found himself pacing around the room he'd be told to wait at, boredom getting into him quickly. There was nothing to do, and it was probably killing him more than actually dying out in the middle of nowhere would have. All there was to keep him grounded were his thoughts - that weren't anything good. Flame scratched at his insignia - the Autobot badge he surprisingly was never stripped of, before looking up at the doors. As if on queue, they opened. The mech who stood there was about Flame's height, and looking for kibble, he seemed to transform into a bike. Their color scheme was mostly a mixture of purple and yellow, with an unmatching grey head. What seemed to be a smaller mech was equipped as a piece of kibble onto his arm, the black taking away from rest of the arm's coloration. Notable was lack of insignia - all the non-Cybertronian species Flame had seen up to then under his new boss' employee wore a gear like symbol - but this mech was blank, and seemed to just be staring past him.

"So," he spoke. "You coming or not?"

"One second," Flame called, taking a few seconds to think up his options. He wanted to make sure that whatever he was doing was safe, and believing he could trust the other, he followed.

"The Grand Architect found you and your partner didn't he? You're lucky - you could have been put in much worse positions."

"I wouldn't consider me and Scorponok partners as much as I'd consider us two smart ex-prisoners who took a stupid chance in an attempt to survive."

"Hm."

"I mean you're up to your own opinions, but from my perspective, you're putting us a lot closer than we actually are. We had literally just met a solar cycle previously," Flame rambled on, before realizing he was probably speaking more than he needed to.

"You were involved in the war, weren't you?"

"I mean, it's kinda obvious. I've got the Autobot badge on my chest in full view - I don't know why you think I wouldn't have been involved."

"Your friend had a different badge. You were on opposite sides, weren't you?"

"I wouldn't consider Scorponok a friend either - but yes, we were."

"I never got involved. I met the Grand Architect vorns ago, and swore loyalty. It's been easier this way. No morality involved, just work for the greater good."

"What do you mean by the greater good?"

"That's something he can explain to you. We're here," the purple bike said, stopping at an open door. "You first."

Flame, wary, pushed the door open and walked inside. The other came behind him, walking at a much slower pace than him. The room was empty other than a transmitter - Flame stared at it in curiosity.

Before he could examine the controls, the other mech had turned on the device. Nothing popped up - Flame had used ones similar to this before. He knew the mech on the other end was definitely hiding their appearance for some reason.

"Greetings, boss," the other said, arms crossed. He looked almost bored - as if this conversation was just a waste of his time.

"Ah, Sideways. On time as always," the Grand Architect spoke over the comm.

"I wouldn't delay my services to you. I brought the one you wanted," he said, grabbing Flame's shoulder and pushing him forward. Flame bumped directly into the transmitter, before stumbling back and fiddling with his hands out of nervousness.

"Uh, hello?" Flame inquired, tilting his head.

"Flame, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Very well, Flame. I suppose you have questions as to why you are here," The way the one on the other side spoke made it seem as if he was amused with the current situation.

"I feel it would be simplest to thank you for saving my life, first and foremost."

"That's something I seem to keep doing. I consider myself lucky to have Cybertronians like you - they're hard to find these days." Flame took a moment to process that. Cybertronians, even with their lacking numbers, had never been hard to come across in his experience. He wondered how far off the Grand Architect had been working from where the war had been occurring.

"I wouldn't consider myself much. Just loyal to serve whatever your cause is."

"So, Flame, are you willing to hel-"

"That's a bit too much for him, you know," Sideways poked in. "If you're going to do the whole monologue you did to the last few of us. I'll do it. Our mission is simple - a threat is coming and we need to get rid of it. Are you willing to contribute to our cause?"

"It's the least I can do."

"Alright, boss. I'll take care of this from here," Sideways said, shutting down the transmitter. "Now, do you mind removing your badge if that's possible?" Flame hadn't even thought of doing that yet. He scratched at the insignia, eventually removing it and throwing it on the floor. By then, Sideways had grabbed what seemed to be a long metal rod. "Hold still," he said. "It'll be painful."

Flame braced himself as Sideways slammed the rod into where his insignia had been, nearly falling to the floor before holding the spot with his hand. The Grand Architect's badge was burning onto his body, and he only looked up at Sideways, wordless.

"That's one way to start a friendship," Sideways laughed, before reaching his hand out. Flame shook it, still in pain from the branding. "Welcome to the team, Flame."

"Uh, thanks?" Flame could only respond. Looking towards the future was blank in his mind now - he had no idea what came next, but whatever it was, he was hopefully prepared for it.


	2. ONE

Adjusting to being a real recruit was quite easy for Flame - he was treated better than he was by the Autobots. By then he had learned quite a few things about the Grand Architect, such as the fact that his fleets operated entirely on Worldsweepers. An interesting choice, in all honesty. He didn't get the feeling they were a former Decepticon however.

He'd been given free range of the ship he was to do whatever he pleased as long as it was in the lines of non-dangerous to others, and it was overly exciting when he got access to the Grand Architect's supply of materials. He'd never had access to fully perform any experiments with the Autobots - anything he wanted to try was deemed unethical or wild. Here, he could do anything he wanted. It was a nice change of pace for Flame, as he never felt bored when being allowed to go at it without restrictions.

Flame was in the middle of writing out plans for his next project when he felt his built in commlink light up. ::You around, Flame?:: Sideways said, his voice seeming impatient.

::Uh,:: Flame stumbled. ::I obviously am, since these are short-range comms, aren't they? You specified that when you gave me one.::

::I meant it metaphorically,:: Sideways responded. Flame felt himself tense up, not out of fear, but out of the annoyance that Sideways thought he wasn't smart enough to know that Sideways was making a sarcastic comment.

::Yes, alright. Do you need anything?:: Flame said back.

::Yeah. Meet me at the bridge, Flame. And make it fast, it's not worth wasting time when the enemy is approaching so soon.::

Overly serious about whatever was happening, Flame thought. That's all Sideways was. But Sideways seemed to have been under the Grand Architect's command for ages, so Flame's bigger concerns were something like that affecting him and Scorponok.

Him and Scorponok. Flame didn't understand why every time he thought about the situation, his processor included Scorponok. It was just a coincidence they ended up in this situation together. There was no reasoning for him to think of the other mech every time he wondered about what to do in this new situation. He didn't need another attachment to drag him down. So he put both his stray thoughts and work aside, and decided to meet with Sideways for whatever the bike required his assistance for.

"Hello, Flame," Sideways said, as Flame entered the room.

"What's up?" Flame asked, noticing nobody else was around.

"Well, I've been talking to the Grand Architect, and they're considering trying to pair you off to work with another one of us in service. You're a genius - but from what I've noticed, not quite skilled in properly executing things."

"So you called me up in person just to tell me I'm incapable of basic instructions? You dig a lot deeper than I thought you would, even with a name like that."

"And I'm right and you know it. You've done nothing but refuse to associate with anyone else - are you afraid of someone being better than you? Such as Sc-"

"Don't say his name. I'm nothing like him. We just were in the same place, at the same time. That's all our relationship extends to."

"Is that so?"

"I've told you multiple times!" Flame exclaimed, feeling his hands curl into fists. He approached Sideways, and grabbed him by the glass on his chest. "Never. Ever. Associate me with Scorponok again. Got that?"

Sideways' response was not one Flame expected. He only laughed it off and pushed Flame away, from him, standing up and adjusting the small cannons on his arm. "I could kill you right now. You've delivered a point, but next time, you're going to want to be civil about it."

Flame didn't know how to respond. Those words had been said to him so many times they had nearly lost all effect, but right here in the moment, they hurt the most. Nowhere he went would leave him alone. "Alright, sir," Flame sputtered out, clasping his hands together and backing off.

"Anyways, where were we? Ah yes, finding you someone to work with. We've both agreed on the best bet."

"It's Scorponok, isn't it."

"You don't seem surprised."

"You bring him up constantly around me. It's hard to be surprised when you make it clear as day."

"Mocking another one, aren't you, Sideways?" said the mech entering the room. They were a seeker, with a mostly purple and teal frame, and they glared at Sideways as if they wanted him dead.

"Ah! Slipstream. Meet Flame. Flame, you know how introductions go, I'd assume," Sideways said.

"He's. An ex-Decepticon," Flame said.

" _She_. It's she now," Slipstream corrected.

"Don't kill me," was the improper response the former Autobot gave.

"Why do you always jump to these conclusions, Flame?" Sideways inquired.

"You tell me if it's either the fact that I worked under Prowl, or the fact that I'm paranoid about everything since I was on Garrus-9. I survived Overlord."

"Interesting. We did have our….former Decepticons interact with your friend already," Sideways went on. Flame was too tired at this point to correct that no, Scorponok was not his friend.

"Of course. Because you guys are going to declare that you're the bad guys and somebody like me wouldn't want to join you."

"I don't think that's what Sideways intended, even if he is often vague most of the time," Slipstream said.

"Nope," Flame continued. "Always the same story. They go 'oh! You're an Autobot, that means you're a good guy, right?' And then they find out that I'm disloyal and instantly agree with my higher ups that I'm useless and that for some damn reason I should be imprisoned instead of just killed. I did things worse than you Decepticons. And yet, they let you have the peace of dying easily while torturing their own."

"And the moral of the story is?" Slipstream asked.

"The Autobots absolutely suck," Flame said.

"I think that's something we can both agree on. But I'm only here to inform Sideways that the Grand Architect wanted him. It's been too long," Slipstream said, before leaving. Sideways took off after her, and Flame could catch a glimpse of him changing into his alternate mode and dashing down the halls of the Worldsweeper, as if there was a deadline.

His only response to the situation he had just been put into was to just let it sink in, realizing that nothing really did change. He just had to make the most of the respect these mechs had for him.

Flame spent that night unable to fall into recharge. He was overly anxious about everything that was going on, and having past wounds torn into definitely wasn't good for his mental state. They all thought he was bad, and wrong, didn't they? He'd ruined his chances of ever fitting in with these other mechs, and couldn't help but feel himself want to offline quickly for it. He figured by the time he most likely would end up asleep, he'd probably be awoken moments later, and thought it wasn't worth it. He leaned back against the wall behind the berth in the room he'd been staying in, and only could find himself looking outside the small window at the stars. _Space doesn't care who you are_ , Flame thought. And that was comforting enough to keep him calm throughout the night.

By the time he found himself being called up by Sideways again, Flame had processed just about every terrible situation that could happen to him solely based on things he knew about. Most of them ended with him dead, having been unable to even feel a life worth living for a moment. In Flame's opinion, those were the _better_ routes.

Flame was mostly distracted by his own thoughts than his actual surroundings, so bumping into another mech shouldn't have been as alarming as it was. He was looking down at the floor before finding himself ramming against a taller Cybertronian, and found himself falling backwards due to force of impact. This was prevented as the other tightly gripped his arm and helped him regain his balance, only for Flame to look them up in the face to thank them. Unfortunately, Flame found himself distracted by who he'd just found. It was Scorponok.

"Oh! Flame. I've been wondering where you've been," Scorponok said, releasing his grip on the other's arm. Flame eyed him up and down, noticing the various physical details that were different from the last time he'd seen him - most notably, the extra guns and the shorter height. His processor liked that, for some reason. He felt better being closer to the other's height.

"Upgrade, huh?" Flame asked, currently eyeing Scorponok's new hands, which were more of a mixture between his previous claws and actual normal hands.

"My former frame was heavily integrated with myself being a Headmaster at the time. I got it fixed to let myself adjust back to being myself again. Alone," Scorponok replied. "Whoever found us has a lot of resources we could use, Flame. You should definitely consider your options or staying or not."

"So you haven't spent the past few solar cycles dealing with Sideways?"

"He's barely interacted with me. Is something wrong with him?"

"No, no, it's. It's fine. He's fine. You don't need to worry," Flame said, at a loss for proper words. Of course Scorponok had it better than him. He always had, regardless of the situation. "I have to meet with Sideways. You have fun doing whatever."

"He asked for me as well."

"Oh," Flame said. _Great_ , he thought. They'd shoved him already with Scorponok. Flame was, at the very least more tolerant of working with him, but also felt Sideways and whoever this Grand Architect person was should have considered the fact that Scorponok was definitely way out of his league. They weren't alike. Scorponok was infamous for working with fusing technological and organic beings, while Flame's greatest achievement had been temporary revival of a dead spark that nobody even was there for. The thing he worked the hardest for couldn't even be confirmed by others. Probably the only thing anyone would ever think when they heard his was " _Hey, isn't that the terrible Autobot from the Aequitas trials?_ ". He didn't want to be associated with that period of his life anymore.

"Flame?" Scorponok asked. "Shouldn't we be going to meet with Sideways now?"

"Oh, yeah, we," Flame stumbled. "Uh."

"I'll take that as a yes," Scorponok said, and took off. Flame followed, still at a loss for words.

"Ah, so the two of you are finally here," Sideways said when they both entered the bridge.

"Why wouldn't we show up?" Scorponok asked.

"Some mechs tend to be late. A very specific one I'm thinking about in particular. Be glad you haven't met him yet."

"So, let's hear it. You told the boss that we'd work together because I've argued with you so much about the fact that no, he is not my friend, and now you're here to announce it," Flame said.

"That's the general gist of it, yes," the bike replied.

"Alright. That's fine. We should be able to leave now," the tank replied. "I have to talk with Scorponok - _alone_." Flame grabbed Scorponok by one of his claws and pulled at him to follow outside the room, where Flame instantly broke into a panic.

"They want us. They want us for a reason and it's not a good one," Flame said.

"What do you mean?" Scorponok asked. "They haven't sent a group of beastformers to mutilate me yet. Although I have not tried to assert my leadership here either?"

"Look. Techy looked at you and went 'Wow! That's someone I really want to add to my collection of Decepticons I pick up.' Then he looked at me and went 'Oh, that's the terrible war criminal Autobot. Might as well brand him and make him mine forcefully through manipulation tactics by a guy who for all we know has two heads.' I don't trust the Grand Architect, I don't trust Sideways, and I sure as hell don't know why I'm coming out to you about this."

"It's because we were inducted together. Or at the same time, rather," Scorponok said.

"Yes, that makes the most sense," Flame said, counting his fingers as if to calculate how long he'd been there. "Nine solar cycles. In nine solar cycles all that's happened to me is I've been stabbed in the chest with a burning metal rod and that spot still hurts. The brand doesn't remove like one from the Autobots would. And meanwhile, you don't even sport his sigil. There's a suspicious bias for you going on and I think we need to get to the bottom of it."

"..." was Scorponok's reply to Flame's rant. "You're overthinking this."

"I overthink everything, and if I'm forced to work with the likes of you, that's something you'll learn about me."

And with that, Flame stormed off to leave Scorponok to question his loyalty to the one who had saved them, without time to properly think about it beforehand.


	3. TWO

It wasn't long before Sideways contacted Flame to assure that yes, he _would_ be working with Scorponok. The fact that he tried to make it seem like a surprise was what irritated Flame - he'd known from the start that he wasn't going to lose Scorponok. Which was good, because for some reason, he didn't want to.

The idea of working with Sideways himself was the one that stuck out more to Flame - everyone he'd met aboard knew nothing of the mech other than his name and that he was the highest ranking among them. That's something Flame thought he'd personally like - ambiguity to everyone. Unfortunately, that was far from how life looked for him.

Flame found himself meeting with Sideways for what he could only assume was the hundredth time, and rolled his optics as the other mech blabbered on about what was required from him. Flame was sick of Sideways. About halfway through the conversation, Scorponok had shown up and merely watched in curiosity as the smaller, purple mech lectured about what was needed from the duo.

"I'm getting sick of this. Get to the point," Flame said, his arms crossed. Scorponok took note of that - he liked the fact that Flame wasn't letting Sideways' higher ranking get to them.

"Ah," Sideways said. "So you're irritated."

"Of course I slaggin' am," Flame replied.

"Well," Sideways said. He took out a datapad and began scrolling through the notes aimlessly, before muttering something to himself. "The Grand Architect's plans revolve around creating a new type of Cybertronian - one that can turn into anything. But he said that's less of a priority than making sure they're self-healing, since we will be up against a beast more powerful than any of us."

"He's being vague again," Flame whispered to Scorponok, who simply nodded his head in agreement. If there was one thing they had in common, it was that the two of them did not like how Sideways never provided the details on what they were up against.

"You two, what are you experiences in dabbling with Cybertronians themselves?"

"About equal to my experience with organics, but more than most of our kind. I have some ideas on how we could work out a creature like the one you require."

"And Flame?"

"Worked a lot with sparks directly. But that's about as far as my expertise go - anything physical is on Scorponok."

"I'm glad you're willing to acknowledge that my talents in the field of science aren't completely destructive to our kind," Scorponok chimed in.

"They are," Flame shot back. "You're stupid, you've spent your entire life trying to achieve something that not even the worst Decepticons would consider, and you make Wheeljack look like he's got a processor."

"Mm," Scorponok responded. "I do see where those opinions could be coming from. Perhaps I should specify what I've achieved so far to you, away from the others."

"Flame. Scorponok. Stop bickering. We don't have time for that," Sideways said. Flame instantly looked at Sideways, before knowing exactly what to say.

"But what if we're being like this while we're walking to a location? What if our movement is all that's required and whatever we say isn't wasting time. What if we have nothing else to do?"

"You won't. Because if you keep asserting your boundaries to me, you won't have them anymore. In fact, you won't have anything," Sideways said, pointing the cannon on his arm directly into the orange one's face. "You'll be _dead_."

"Alright, sir," Flame said, pushing the cannon away from his face and backing away from Sideways.

"I'll leave the two of you to discuss what we have decided to require from you," Sideways said, exiting the room.

"Heh. He's fucking out of it to ask me about working on Cybertronians. My plans extend to something much greater," Scorponok told Flame, who was processing the sentence, particularly the apparent swear word Scorponok had used. He probably picked it up back on Earth, was Flame's assumption.

"I assume that you'll let me take lead in how we should approach this situation, then?"

"You can have that impossible challenge to yourself. I just plan to help to get on the Architect's good side to sponsor my own ideas," Scorponok said, looking at his claws as if he had nails.

"You're very adamant about getting something for yourself out of this alliance, aren't you?"

"Indeed I am. You're saying you aren't?"

"I've never really been given a choice to approach a situation in multiple varabilities, except in combat."

"Oh," Scorponok said. "So that's what it's like for an _Autobot_."

"Don't associate me with them. I never wanted to be one of them."

"Then why were you?" Flame went silent at the question, only backing up and thinking of multiple ways to change the subject. There was no way in hell he was telling Scorponok his life story, even if they were the mech he trusted the most right now.

"That's not for you to know," Flame finally responded, making direct eye contact with Scorponok. "I don't trust you to know that much about me, yet."

"Fair."

"Well then. We should probably figure out how well we work together in a laboratory, shouldn't we?"

"I assume that is the best approach we could take, yes."

"Alright, because if we're approaching this from my methods, we should figure out if anyone's done something like this before. Perhaps we could ask if Sideways knows any triple changers who would be open to me taking a look at what codes them to have multiple alternate modes. If he doesn't, I'm not sure how we should tackle the situation. But from the one time I had to quickly repair Broadside from way back when I was a Wrecker, I did take notice that they do seem to have different anatomical structures in even things as small as their joints compared to the normal forged Cybertronian, an-"

"What?" Scorponok inquired. Flame, realizing he had just talked for a good minute or two out loud right in front of the other, only gave a response that translated into looking up at Scorponok, and then exiting the room as quickly as possible to ignore any more conflict.

"He's an odd mech, isn't he?" Scorponok told himself after Flame left. "I can't help but find myself interested to see if we are compatible to work on something like this."


End file.
